Charles Alexander Harris

“ PELHAM, HERBERT (1600–1673) , colonist, born probably in Sussex, but possibly in Lincolnshire, in 1600, was the eldest son of Herbert Pelham and Penelope, a younger daughter of Thomas West, second lord De la Warr. He must be carefully distinguished from a very distant relative, Herbert, son of Sir William Pelham, fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, who was born in 1602. The colonist, who was at no university, was brought up as a country gentleman. ”

“ MACGREGOR, JOHN, commonly known as Rob Roy (1825–1892) , philanthropist and traveller, horn on 24 Jan. 1825, was son of General Sir Duncan MacGregor, K.C.B. His mother was the youngest daughter of Sir William Dick, bart., of Prestonfield, near Edinburgh. Adventures came to him early: as a baby he was outward bound on the Kent, East Indiaman, which took fire in the Bay of Biscay. An account of the disaster was published by his father in 1825, and repubished by him in 1880. As a boy he was apt at mechanics, read hard, was a good climber, boxer, and horseman, and passionately fond of boating. ”

“ Towards the close of 1809 Macquarie proceeded with his regiment to the convict settlement of New South Wales. The colony was in a critical state. The New South Wales corps, acting with the less law-abiding portion of the population, had deposed Governor William Bligh [q. v.] and established a provisional government. Macquarie replaced the New South Wales corps with his regiment, and proceeded to carry out his special instructions, viz. to enforce the authority of the crown, and after twenty-four hours to assume the government of the colony in succession to Bligh. ”

“ In 1854 McCulloch entered the then single chamber of Victoria as a nominee-member, and early in 1857 was elected for Wimmera to the first elective legislative assembly, where he took his seat at first on the cross benches. In April 1857 Sir John O'Shanassy's ministry fell, and McCulloch was invited to form a government—in which he did not take the position of premier, but the portfolio of trade and customs. ”

“ He was intimate with such men as Story and Clay, and he had to watch such burning questions as that of the boundary with Canada, the position of the South American republics, the slave trade, and the tariff. ”

“ Two of the chief rivers of New South Wales are the Lachlan and Macquarie. Port Macquarie was a rural convict settlement established shortly before he left the colony. There are Macquarie County, Marshes, and Plains, and the Lachlan district. Macquarie Place and Macquarie Street are in Sydney. Tasmania has Macquarie Harbour, and the town thereon, Macquarie Plains, and Macquarie River. Macquarie Island, south of Tasmania, was discovered in 1811. ”

“ PEPPERELL, Sir WILLIAM (1696–1759) , the ‘hero of Louisburg,’ was born at Kittery Point, Maine, on 27 June 1696. His father was a native of Tavistock, Devonshire, who emigrated to the Isle of Shoals, Massachusetts, in early life, and from a penniless fisherman became a great shipowner and merchant. He died in 1734. His mother was Margery Bray, whose parents emigrated to escape religious persecution. Taking a personal share in his father's timber and warehousing trade, he grew up robust and hardy. ”

“ The Pacific railway scandal gave Mackenzie his opportunity. The government met parliament in 1873 with apparently undiminished strength. On 27 Oct. Mackenzie moved an amendment to the speech from the throne to the effect that the conduct of Sir John Macdonald's ministry towards the Pacific railway charter had deprived it of the confidence of the country [see Macdonald, Sir John] . The debate was continued for seven days, and before a vote was taken the ministry resigned. Mackenzie formed a new ministry (7 Nov.) , becoming himself minister of public works. ”

“ On 27 Feb. 1875 he was transferred to Servia as British agent and consul-general. This post at last gave him some scope for employing the knowledge which for many years past he had been acquiring, and laid the foundation of his great influence in dealing with Eastern nationalities. Within a few months of his arrival in Servia the old Eastern question began to assume an acute phase, and in June 1876 the Servians, following the lead of Herzegovina, declared war against Turkey. Their defeat was followed by the conference at Constantinople in December 1876. ”

“ But about this time Rigby set up his claim to Maine as against Gorges, and sent out an agent, Cleave, who entered into a vigorous controversy with Vines. The latter, though he upheld the Gorges claims with some success, eventually in 1645 returned to England, whence he went to Barbados and settled as a planter on two adjoining estates comprising fifty acres, turning his attention to tobacco, cotton, and sugar; he also practised his profession with much success. Gorges wrote in high terms of Vines's care and diligence as his agent. ”

“ Later in the year Mackenzie revisited Scotland; he was presented with the freedom of Irvine, Dundee, and Perth, and was entertained by the queen at Windsor, but he declined the honour of knighthood. During the sessions of 1876 and 1877 several measures of a liberal character and permanent utility became law, and public works, including sections of the Pacific railway, were vigorously prosecuted. The premier was also successful in obtaining from the home government permission for Canada to nominate a delegate to the International Fishery Commission, which met at Halifax on 15 June 1877. ”

“ In 1842 he emigrated to Canada, and settled at Kingston, Ontario, where he worked for a time as a journeyman builder. In the following year his brother, Hope F. Mackenzie, and about 1848 the rest of the family, joined him. At the latter date Alexander removed to Sarnia, and set up there as a builder and contractor. Mackenzie from an early period interested himself in politics, inheriting strong whig traditions. In 1852 he became editor of the newly founded 'Lambton Shield' at Sarnia, and sought, with the aid of his brother Hope, to educate the Canadians in liberalism. ”

“ Young MacKay was educated for the presbyterian ministry at the Australian college in Sydney, and he became for a time a school-master. But he soon turned his attention to journalism, and before he was twenty years of age he was a contributor to the 'Australian Magazine' and the 'Atlas' (a paper established by Robert Lowe, afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke) . ”

“ In 1875 Mackenzie's ministry advised an amnesty to those concerned in the troubles in the north-western territories in 1869-70 (which led to the Red River expedition) ; took important steps towards consolidating those territories, and established a supreme court of the Dominion. ”

“ On 18 April 1885 White was nominated envoy-extrordinary at Constantinople, and was at once brought face to face with a question of first importance—the legality of the annexation of Eastern Roumelia to Bulgaria in defiance of the treaty of Berlin of 1878. Russia took the ground that the treaty must be upheld at all costs. White was convinced that the breach of the treaty was really in the interests of Europe ”

“ In 1867 he varied his craft and took his holiday in a small yawl, built to his own design, also christened Rob Roy. He started down the Thames and crossed the Channel to France ; thence, after some sailing on the rivers, he came back to the Isle of Wight and eastward along the south coast to London. ”

“ WHITE, Sir WILLIAM ARTHUR (1824–1891) , diplomatist, the son of Arthur White, who was in the British consular service, and Eliza Lila, daughter of Lieutenant-general William Gardiner Neville, was born in 1824, and educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered the consular service on 9 March 1857 as clerk to the consul-general at Warsaw. He frequently acted as consul-general; and on 9 Jan. 1861 he became vice-consul, again acting as consul-general for the greater part of 1862 and 1863. ”

“ A man of untiring industry and activity, he was a director of the Bank of New Zealand, the New Zealand Sugar Company, the New Zealand and River Plate Land Mortgage Company, and other local institutions or agencies. ”

“ In 1876 he once more returned to politics, and was elected for Waikato to the house of representatives; in September 1876 he became attorney-general in Atkinson's government, taking later the portfolio of posts and telegraphs. His land bill this year was strenuously opposed, and at last withdrawn. On 15 Oct. 1877 the government was defeated, and in the general election which followed he lost his seat. But the incoming ministry was short-lived, and when Sir John Hall formed his administration, Whitaker became attorney-general with a seat in the legislative council. ”

“ McKINLAY, JOHN (1819–1872) , Australian explorer, born in 1819 at Sandbank, on the Clyde, emigrated in 1836 to New South Wales to join an uncle who was a prosperous squatter. He took up several runs near the South Australian border, and quickly made a reputation as an expert bushman.
When in 1861 the government of South Australia decided to send an expedition to trace the fate of Robert O'Hara Burke and Wills, and effect further exploration, the command was offered to McKinlay. He left Adelaide on 16 Aug. ”

“ In 1749, having retired from business, he resolved to visit England, and embarked for London, where he was cordially received by George II and presented by the city of London with a service of plate. On the renewal of war with France in 1755 he took the field with a regiment of a thousand men, but saw no active service. ”

“ VIGER, DENIS BENJAMIN (1774–1861) , Canadian statesman, born at Montreal on 19 Aug. 1774, was the only son of Denis Viger by his wife Charlotte Périnne, second daughter of François Pierre Cherrier. He was educated at St. Raphael's (Roman catholic) College, Montreal, proceeding to the bar, where he soon became distinguished. He entered the assembly as member for Montreal in 1808, and, being a cousin of Louis Joseph Papineau [q. v.] , espoused the popular side. ”

“ In 1845 Whitaker was appointed an unofficial member of the legislative council; and during the first native war of 1845 and 1846 he was called upon to serve in the militia, of which he was a major. In 1851 he was elected to represent Auckland in the legislative council for the province of New Ulster ”

“ Shortly before his retirement from office Macalister received the decoration of C.M.G. From 22 June 1876 till 16 Nov. 1881, he was agent-general for the colony of Queensland in London. The prominent part Macalister took in the politics of Queensland was due to his perseverance and devotion to the life, rather than to any commanding ability.
He retired to the neighbourhood of Glasgow in 1881, and died there on 23 March 1883. He was married, and left grown-up children residing in Queensland. ”

“ On 18 Jan. 1781 he was transferred as lieutenant to the 71st regiment, and served in New York and Charlestown on garrison duty at the close of the war with the United States, and afterwards in Jamaica till 1784, when he was placed for a time on half-pay. On 25 Dec. 1787 he received a commission as lieutenant in the 77th regiment, which proceeded to India. On 9 Nov. 1788 he was promoted to be captain. In India he saw his first active service, being present at the sieges of Cannanore in 1790, and Seringpatam in 1791. He was in the field in Cochin China in 1795, and Ceylon in 1796. ”

“ The natives had a tradition that a fine country lay there. In February 1839 he arrived at Curawang, a village of the Maneroo tribe of natives; and in May he provided himself with arms and provisions for four weeks, and set out with a black chief for companion. Four days later he reached the hill now known as the Haystack, from the top of which he had a bird's-eye view of the country which he wished to explore. ”

“ On 4 Feb. 1809 he and Bligh signed the convention by which the latter consented to go home ‘with the utmost despatch,’ but Bligh had not gone further than Tasmania by March, and continued to give trouble. Paterson was relieved on 31 Dec. 1809 by the arrival of the new governor, Lachlan Macquarie [q. v.] His corps—now become the 102nd regiment—was ordered home, and he left the colony in May 1810, amid the enthusiastic farewells of the colonists. He died on the passage home, on board her majesty's ship Dromedary, on 21 June 1810. ”

“ He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1851, and devoted himself for a time to 'patent' law; but, being possessed of ample means, threw aside the chances of a good practice and devoted the rest of his life chiefly to foreign travel or to active philanthropic work at home, with occasional diversions into literary and mechanical investigations. ”

“ MacGregor had much literary facility, and was a good draughtsman, always illustrating his own books. While at Cambridge as an undergraduate he contributed to the 'Mechanics' Magazine/ 1844, and sent sketches to 'Punch,' His records of his travels are very brightly written. Their titles are: 1. 'Three Days in the East,' 1850. 2. 'Our Brothers and Cousins, a Tour in Canada,' 1859. 3. 'A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe, 1866. 4. 'A Voyage alone in the Yawl Rob Roy,' 1867. 5. 'The Rob Roy on the Baltic,' 1867. 6. 'The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Red Sea, and Gennesareth,' 1869. ”